Roughly 2.6 million pickup trucks are sold each year in the United States, and a high percentage of these are used in a work environment. By definition, a pickup truck is a light truck having an open body with low sides and a tailboard. Essentially all pickup trucks are equipped with a movable tailboard known as a tailgate, which is a hinged board or closure at the rear of a vehicle that can be lowered during loading and unloading.
Pickup truck owners use their trucks to transport and store an endless array of goods and materials of all shapes and sizes. Such items may include building materials like lumber and stone, work tools, agricultural goods, livestock, and even people.
One of the common problems faced by users of pickup trucks is that in order to get access to the pickup truck's bed, or cargo box, one must either reach over or step over the truck's sides or tailgate. While it is somewhat easy to reach over into the cargo box to grasp objects that are close to the sides, naturally it becomes increasingly difficult to reach items that are further away from the sides.
Most shortbed pickup trucks are fitted with beds whose dimensions are approximately 78 inches in length, 60 to 66 inches in width, and 15 to 17 inches in depth. The bed's width between the wheel wells, which take up space and cut into maximum cargo volume, is generally 20 inches narrower. In the case of longbed pickup trucks, beds generally range 96 inches in length, making it that much more difficult to reach objects near the bed's center while standing at the tailgate. Due to the fact that the average arm span and reach of an adult is 63 inches, it is clearly difficult for an individual standing beside the truck to reach and manipulate items located in the center of the truck bed.
Given that pickup trucks are typically used to transport goods and materials, and that user's generally have a difficult time reaching and manipulating items in the cargo box, it is not surprising that accidents and injuries are well known to occur in this environment. According to Professional Safety magazine, accidents that result from attempts to reach and manipulate objects in a pickup truck's cargo box are characterized as being “dramatically obvious situations in which an employee might well sustain a back related injury”. In addition to the obvious potential for serious back injuries, other injuries may occur. For example, muscles may be sprained or torn due to over-extended reach or heavy lifting from an improper angle or with improper leverage. Bones may be broken when heavy items shift or are suddenly dropped. Users who risk climbing up on truck bumpers or wheel wells in order to extend their reach may slip or fall, resulting in head or other injuries.
Aside from such serious injuries, lower impact ergonomics are certainly negatively affected by the activities described above. For example, women report the frequent occurrence of muscle strain caused by reaching in over the dropped tailgate for groceries or heavy packages. Men typically sustain low-level injuries as a result of reaching to unlock or open cargo toolboxes.